The Disproportionate Overrepresentation of Minority Youth in ...

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Changes in the family structure and family dynamics are also seen as factors in the
quality of supervision and discipline provided to youth.
Q. It has come up that there is an increasing number of teenagers having
children. Do you think that element has always been there) that there has
always been young kids having kids or do you think it is increasing
A. Since I have been in the field there has been a dramatic increase. When
I first got involved there were some kids in their early teens having
children but families were helping them raise those children. Each year it
is like it has multiplied, the number of kids having children younger and
there are a whole multitude of factors you have. Most come from an
economically disadvantaged background, their resources are limited and
you just keep going and even though the system tries to plug all of these
resources in, you are still lacking because they are young parents who are
number one, they are children themselves, trying to parent another child
and there aren’t two parents in there working together.
Some believe this occurrence is generational and part of a subculture while others see it
as a response to a need to be needed on the part of the females and as a status symbol for
males.
It is for these reasons, one officer states that much time is spent in terms of
holding the youth accountable for their actions.
trying to support the parent and trying to make sure the kid is in school
and make sure they are held accountable because I see that as the starting
point for everything. I think in terms of consequences, appropriate
consequences...we don’t care if the kid is on probation for civil charges
and then goes and steals something for 50 cents. I don’t care,